3
Leon
Men in cheap black suits drag me and my brothers away from Lucia. Damien signals for us to cooperate and that’s the only reason they’re able to haul us away from our angel and her brother.
They take us to a remote corner of the school grounds. Even the thuds of hip-hop music from the auditorium can’t be heard here. Looking ahead, I see a fleet of six vans in the distance.
It looks like Callum came prepared tonight. There are more men waiting for his command in those vehicles.
I glance toward my elder brother. He has to understand we’re in danger. Even though Mr. Baldwin has been kind to us all these years, his son may not share his intentions. He’s here to hurt us and separate us from Lucia.
“You’ve made your point,” says Damien to the man who seems to be the leader of Callum’s minions. “Let us go now.”
The man stays silent and instead, signals to his men.
Suddenly, we’re all shoved to the ground. Several men pour out from the stationed vans, each carrying a baseball bat.
“Fuck!” I mutter, steadying myself on my feet. “It looks like we’re going to have to fight our way through this shitstorm.”
“Leon, watch your left,” Damien reminds me. “Mikhail, don’t expose your chin and navel during the fight.”
We align ourselves along the points of an invisible triangle. This way, we can deflect blows meant for the person on our either side, giving them a chance to dodge a fatal attack.
At least two dozen men are surrounding us but I’m confident we can beat them together. We just need to stay calm and focused.
The men come at us together. They’re a group of tall, well-built betas but they’re all untrained. Their moves are clumsy as hell and soon, we’re gaining the upper hand.
Soon, we’ve all gotten our hands on the fallen baseball bats, allowing us to give back lethal blows to our enemies. Our breaths come out in harsh pants as we continue to fight off the small army of men Callum sent to destroy us.
A part of me can relate to him. Hell, we’ll do the same to anyone who dares to hurt Lucia. I just wish he’d see how my brothers and I are different. We’ll do anything to protect her and make her smile.
A loud gunfire shatters the night air, making us freeze up.
“Stop fighting back or I’ll blow your brains out,” the leader shouts, aiming his gun at us.
Damien gestures for us to step back immediately, his gaze focused on the barrel of the gun pointed toward us.
“What’s it going to take for you to let us go?” Damien barks in a thunderous voice. “There’s been a misunderstanding. We don’t want any trouble with you or your boss.”
“You’re not leaving this place on your two legs,” answers the man in a cold, emotionless tone. “Whether you get to keep your lives is dependent on our master’s whim.”
I glance at Damien. His face is a mask of fury but cracks are beginning to appear in his brave fa?ade. I can tell he’s having a hard time trying to find a way to get us out of this situation.
Mikhail is the same. His gaze darts between the gaps among the men surrounding us, but there’s no way out, not when someone is aiming a gun at us.
“Drop your weapons,” the leader commands.
Without a choice, we drop the bats to the ground.
I grit my teeth and ball my fists. We’re completely at their mercy now.
The men we’d beaten back earlier come at us with raised weapons.
“What do we do, Damien?” Mikhail asks in a fear-choked whisper.
“Survive,” Damien replies in a cold tone.
Ever since the day we were thrown out into the streets, this was the only mantra we’d held on to. No matter what came at us, we had to survive it.
We’ll survive this too , I tell myself as the first blow falls on my back.
Gasps and pants escape me as a rain of merciless attacks rain down on me and my brothers. Instinct makes me want to fight and block the blows, but the loaded gun aimed at us forces me to bear the torture.
After a while, my body stays on the ground. A couple of broken ribs poke at my sides, making any movement feel like torture. My breathlessness troubles me, making me wonder if I have a punctured lung. Does Lucia’s brother truly intend to kill us?
Heck! We even spared the bastards talking crap about her.
Callum is Lucia’s brother. There’s no way he could be as merciless as I’m imagining.
I look toward Damien and Mikhail. All my courage seeps out of me as I take in their bloodied, beaten bodies lying next to me.
It’s a while before the men are satisfied with our states. They leave us on the cold, hard ground and move away.
Pained, shallow groans escape us. Our broken bodies refuse to move despite the danger lurking over us.
Hours seem to crawl by as I lie on the cold ground with my brothers.
Anxiety ripples through me. My brothers’ injuries must be as bad as mine. We all need a trip to the ER immediately to make sure we aren’t bleeding internally.
A black haze hovers over me, threatening to drown me.
“They’re over here,” I hear the fucking tyrant speak.
The sound of heavy soles hitting the grassy ground reaches my ears. Opening my eyes, I look up at Lucia’s brother.
There isn’t a shred of remorse in those cold, dark eyes. I can’t believe this man is related to our angel and her father.
“Good,” says Callum as he slowly circles me and my brothers.
This is the first time we’re meeting him. He’d been away from home over the past couple of years, managing Mr. Baldwin’s business in Europe. Lucia didn’t speak of him much and as long as we knew her, we never really cared for him.
I expected Callum to be the same as his father and sister.
Mr. Baldwin is the kindest man we’d come across during our time on the streets. He sheltered us in his home and allowed us to stay even though we were strangers to him.
Lucia was the same as him, treating us with nothing but warmth and kindness.
Where are they now? I wonder as Callum bends down to grab Damien’s collar and yanks his head up.
“Let my brothers go,” Damien mumbles through bloodied, bruised lips. “They have nothing to do with this. Kill me if you want to but let them go.”
“Ah! So, you do know what it’s like to care for a sibling,” says Callum.
“Please, let them g—” A cruel punch falls on Damien’s cheek before he can complete the sentence.
“I’ll not spare the dogs who dared to touch my sister,” Callum barks as he shakes my brother’s limp body.
A flash of silver suddenly catches my eye.
My blood turns to ice as I realize what it is. Callum is holding a switchblade in his hand and it’s dangerously close to Damien’s face.
“Lucia likes us,” Damien says haltingly as he coughs up blood. “She wouldn’t want you to hurt us.”
“My sister told me you were trash that she picked up off the side of the road because she was bored,” says Callum. “You and your brothers mean nothing to her.”
“That’s not true,” Damien argues.
Callum’s hold on my brother’s hair tightens. “Lucia is my sister. I know what’s true about her and what’s not. She doesn’t want you boys hanging around her anymore.”
“Fine, we’ll go,” says Damien. “Just...let us go.”
Callum lowers his face to my brother’s. “What’s the hurry? I’m not done with you yet.” He places the knife’s tip against Damien’s cheek and slashes.
A cry escapes my lips as his blood spurts on the grass. “Stop it!” I scream.
Callum chuckles, his dark eyes gleaming with malice as he holds my weakly resisting brother in his clutches.
Using all my strength, I push myself on my feet and hurl my body at Callum.
“Stay away!” Callum bellows, lashing at me with the knife.
The weapon cuts across my face, making me stumble backward. One of the men surrounding us kicks me behind the knees, sending me to the ground.
The night rings out with my brother’s screams as Callum carves his face. Blood coats the maniac’s hands as he smiles at the sound of Damien’s tortured shrieks.
Sobs escape me as I flail on the ground helplessly.
I glance toward Mikhail. He’s too still and silent. Damien’s screams should’ve at least made him open his eyes and look up.
Pain and anxiety swirl inside me. Are we all going to die tonight?
Damien’s limp body falls beside me with a thud. He barely moves while Callum wipes his knife on Mikhail’s unmoving body.
“Dump these kids somewhere,” Callum instructs in a tone that suggests he’s talking about trash.
Maybe that’s what we are to him. Trash.
Did Lucia think so as well? Was her angelic face just a fa?ade that hid a monster underneath it?
It hurts to think she didn’t care enough about us to at least spare us our lives. She could beg her brother but she isn’t even here.
The men move forward and haul our beaten, broken bodies. They throw us in the back of a van and drive out through the front gates of the school campus without drawing any attention from the drunken teens loitering on the grounds.
No one in the world will know what happened to us. I don’t know where they’re going to dump us but I’m sure it’s not going to be at a hospital.
This is what it means to be an assassin.
Death never comes easy if you’re caught.
And if you die during a mission, you’ll be buried namelessly without anyone acknowledging your existence.
We’d been thrown out into the streets to learn these very lessons.
The van seems to drive for an eternity before stopping.
My brothers don’t move or make a sound. I’m the only one still conscious enough to witness the horror of what is about to happen to us next.
A putrid smell assaults my senses when someone opens the back of the van. I let them haul my injured body and throw me among a pile of rubbish. Two heavy thuds sound next to me, telling me they were done dumping my brothers as well.
I slowly open my eyes.
Mountains of garbage surround us. The stench wafting into my nostrils smells like death and ruin.
A bitter chuckle escapes me. They’ve brought us to a garbage dump.
The screeching of tires against soft filth reaches my ears. The van drives away, leaving us behind to rot among the piles of rubbish surrounding us.
Is this the end of the Volkov brothers?
Lucia and Callum better hope that it is because if we survive, we’d make sure to make them pay a hundred-fold, no... a thousand-fold of the pain they made us suffer tonight.
There’s no higher crime in our dark underworld than betrayal. Hurt as it may, Lucia will have to pay the price someday.
If only we survive through this ...I think as darkness closes upon my senses.